The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act injected about $6.3 billion into Michigan’s economy.

But Littmann and Staley both said the unemployment figures in Michigan, despite the infusion of cash, show the stimulus isn’t working.

“All I see is unemployment,” Littmann said.

“It was poorly designed to begin with,” Staley said. “It was not targeted for job creation of any consequence. It was a backdoor way to continue to fund the projects the Obama administration wanted. Under the mantra of jobs they just packaged a bunch of programs under the stimulus. It’s not part of a strategic or well designed program to stimulate the economy.”

For example, Flint’s unemployment rate was 13.8 percent in February 2009 when the stimulus program was approved. It was 16.6 percent in December 2009. Flint was approved for $2.2 million to pay for two environmentally friendlier electric buses.

Samuel R. Staley, Ph.D. is a senior research fellow at Reason Foundation and managing director of the DeVoe L. Moore Center at Florida State University in Tallahassee where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in urban planning, regulation, and urban economics. Prior to joining Florida State, Staley was director of urban growth and land-use policy for Reason Foundation where he helped establish its urban policy program in 1997.